Moonrise Kingdom

I had heard a great deal of buzz about this movie through the early parts of the summer but it was not until August that it arrived at our theater. With Wes Anderson as the director and with a stellar cast one was instantly curious about what this simple movie could have to bring such a group together.

The movie set in the mid sixties is about a young boy, 12 or 13, who goes to summer camp, is unpopular, runs away with a local girl he has met, and all that happens as a result of this.

Jared Gilman plays Sam Shakusky an orphan boy who returns for a second year to Camp Khaki s summer camp in New England. The camp's Scoutmaster is Randy Ward, played by Edward Norton. Scoutmaster Ward's real job is as a math teacher but he considers scouting his real calling and takes it very seriously. It is a hoot to see, as he makes his inspections of the camp and scouts, the scout-leader smoking. Different times indeed.

Kara Hayward plays Suzy Bishop. Hayward makes her first movie appearance, she won an open casting call for the role in Massachusetts. Hayward is a member of Mensa and has said that her IQ rates in the highly exceptional range. One guesses she had no trouble remembering her lines.

She is unsettling in her role, with heavy eye shadow like a girl trying to be a woman, and yet bringing her cat when they run away, complete with cans of cat food, and her favorite books. As they seek to get to their idyllic runaway spot, which they name Moonrise Kingdom, she is seen carrying her heavy clunky suitcase.

The cast is exceptional. Truly. Bruce Willis plays the local police captain. Harvey Keitel plays the Commodore of all the khaki scouts on the island. Frances McDormand of Fargo fame plays Suzy's Mom and Bill Murray plays her Dad.

This is a top notch cast and this is a sweet movie. Cute, innocent, heartfelt, escapism is as good a description as one can give. This movie is worth all the buzz.

A final note. It might be time to accept what a treasure we have in Bill Murray. Hard to believe that this man who played on Saturday Night Live in all it's over the top, raucous glory, could be the same actor who can play an understated role such as this in a way that makes it hard to remember how over the top he can be. He is however. Murray with his late night visits, usually in preposterous costume or character, to David Letterman are must see television has reached the point where he does exactly what he wants and only what he wants. I remember hearing a story about he came to take a certain role and the screenwriter described that Murray never answers his phone and one must follow this process of leaving and relaying messages and hoping for the best. Still, once in a role, Murray might be the most underrated actor we have.

Before this movie I saw a preview for the upcoming movie Hyde Park on the Hudson in which Murray will play a Presidential Franklin Roosevelt. Based on the previews he appears to nail it in a way that might be award winning. It is shaping up to be a great year for one who is fast becoming a treasure for his eclectic choices of where to use his enormous talent.

Pulp Fiction

This Quentin Tarantino movie from 1994 established him as one of the hottest directors around. The movie, something between a gangster, crime noir, camp sendup all with a modern nineties twist, is crazy good.

Told in a series of vignettes that are shown out of order the movie features dialogue that just goes on and on. Soliloquoy;s on religion, drugs, and pop culture are just a few of the sojourns the characters take.

The acting is fierce. First and formeost this movie is known as the movie that revitalized the career of John Travolta. Travolta whose career went on a ten year dip is so strong in this role. It is impossible to take your eyes off the screen when he is on it.

A short synopsis of the movie is hard to give. I will try. As the movie begins two small time robbers are eating breakfast at a diner when they decide to rob it. As they stand up to announce the robbery the opening credits role.

Then we join Jewels, played by Samuel L Jackson and the aforementioned Travolta as Vincent Vega. Jewels and Vega two hit men are on their way to a job and discuss Vega's recent three year trip to Europe. They then enter a house and steal a case, or retake a case, that belongs to their boss. In the process a few people get shot.

Then we meet the Boss Marcellus as he gives a large amount of money to Bruce Willis who plays Buddy Coolidge. Coolidge, a boxer, is being paid to take a dive.

From there we have an incredible scene with Travolta's Vega taking Marcellus's girl on a date. Uma Thurman is captivating, enchanting and lots of other adjectives even when she overdoses.

Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Roseanna Arquette, and in a memorable one scene performance Christopher Walken also appear in this movie.

This is a bueatifully shot movie. It is violent, gory and has more twelve letter curse words than any movie I have seen. With all that it is a very strong movie.

RED

A friend of my wife that this was a " great " movie so she got it from Netflix and we watched it last night. The movie was not a keeper. It was very close to being a movie that I stopped about 20 minutes in. As we had my wife's sister here and she and her son were watching the movie as well we did not.

The premise is that Bruce Willis a retired CIA agent who has been labeled RED or Retired, Extremely Dangerous. Assassins in great number come after Willis who of course escapes. Earlier in the movie we see that Willis has gained an attraction to a Customer Service Rep at his pension office, we see him ripping the checks up as he states his has not arrived.

Eventually his CSR friend, played by Mary Louise Parker becomes his unwilling accomplice, and later love interest. Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren and John Malkovich play parts in Willis'a adventure. Freeman played his universal character these days it seems, patriarchal, aging, dying friend to all.

Malkovich however is in his element here. Playing a crazy conspiracy theorist he explodes in his role and if there were an award for over the top but right on performances in bad movies he would win.

He alone is worth sitting through much of the silliness of this movie.